The French, who had been marching forward with careless ease, beheld
this change of the situation with astounded eyes. They looked for
heaviness and slowness of movement among the Germans, and could scarcely
believe in the possibility of such rapidity of evolution. But they had
little time to think. The Prussian batteries were pouring a rain of
balls through their columns. And quickly the Prussian cavalry, headed by
the dashing Seidlitz, was in their midst, cutting and slashing with
annihilating vigor.
The surprise was complete. The French found it impossible to form into
line. Everywhere their columns were being swept by musketry and
artillery, and decimated by the sabres of the charging cavalry. In
almost less time than it takes to tell it they were thrown into
confusion, overwhelmed, routed; in the course of less than half an hour
the fate of the battle was decided, and the French army completely
defeated.
Their confidence of a short time before was succeeded by panic, and the
lately trim ranks fled in utter disorganization, so utterly broken that
many of the fugitives never stopped till they reached the other side of
the Rhine.
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